Apple managed to meet analyst expectations regarding its second quarter earnings report, and even plans to dole out additional cash to investors.

For Q2 2013 that ended March 30, Apple posted a net profit of $9.5 billion ($10.09 per diluted share). However, profit was down 18 percent compared to the same period last year; this was Apple's first year-over-year profut decline in nearly 10 years. Revenue came in at $43.6 billion, which was a boost from $39.2 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Analysts expected around $10.07 per share on revenue of $42.5 billion.

Second quarter sales were at 37.4 million iPhones, 19.5 million iPads and a little under 4 million Macs.

“We are very fortunate to be in a position to more than double the size of the capital return program we announced last year,” Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said in the statement. “We believe so strongly that repurchasing our shares represents an attractive use of our capital that we have dedicated the vast majority of the increase in our capital return program to share repurchases.”

Apple now has $145 billion in cash, and the board announced that it will return an extra $55 billion in cash to shareholders as part of a capital program that was introduced in March 2012. The board said it will double the $45 billion cash-return program, intending to up the spend on share repurchases and buybacks to $100 billion through the end of 2015.

Many investors weren’t expecting the best figures to come from Apple’s quarterly earnings report this time around, mainly because the Cupertino-based company has had a pretty tough year – and it shows in the company’s stock price. Apple shares have fallen from $702.10 in September to $406.13 at the time of this article. The stock price plunged to $400 after supplier Cirrus Logic Inc. warned investors that its margins had weakened. This is indicative of Apple’s weak sales of flagship devices because Cirrus's chip stock fluctuates mainly with the sales of Apple's devices – since that’s its largest customer.

Apple ditched Google Maps as its main iOS maps app in favor of its own in-house service last year. Apple Maps debuted with the iOS 6 launch in September, but the application failed miserably when it came to navigation and geography. Apple CEO Tim Cook was even forced to apologize for the mishap.

Beyond the mapping issues, Apple had a huge executive shakeup in 2012. In October, Apple Vice President of iOS Software Scott Forstall was booted from the company as a result of the poor job on the maps app. John Browett, head of Apple Retail, was fired at the same time for orchestrating a failed retail hiring formula. A month later, Richard Williamson -- manager of the Apple mapping team – was fired as well.

Competition from Google’s Android operating system and it’s key hardware maker Samsung has posed a huge threat toward Apple, too. Apple's iPhone only represented about 19 percent of worldwide smartphone shipments in 2012 while all Android-powered smartphones accounted for about 70 percent. Android will even beat Apple in the tablet sector this year, according to a new report from IDC.According to IDC, iPad shipments are expected to make up 46 percent of the tablet market for 2013, down from 51 percent in 2012. Android-powered tablets are expected to increase their market share to 49 percent in 2013, up from 42 percent in 2012.

Samsung is expected to break another profit record for its fiscal Q2 2013 quarterly earnings, with an earnings guidance of $7.7 billion USD profit (up from $5 billion USD in the year-ago quarter).

Apple and Google are even branching out to another competitive realm in mobile electronics: wearable technology. Google is now offering its Google Glass headset (which is an augmented reality device) for $1,500 to early adopters and Apple is developing a smart watch, which could be released as early as this year. Microsoft is said to be working on a smart watch, too.

Apple showed a bit of fear in March during the eve of the Samsung Galaxy S IV launch. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, told The Wall Street Journal that Android's fragmentation was "plain and simple" and that Android-powered devices are the kinds of phones that are given as free replacements to feature phones. He also said that iOS is a much more smooth experience because Apple is responsible for both the hardware and software.

While Apple clearly had a ton of problems to contend with over the year, one of the major worries that investors have is whether Apple can continue to create innovative products and keep up with the likes of Samsung/Google. Many have complained that the iPhone has only had very minimal changes over the years, and that competitors are taking greater risks as far as hardware/software design and functionality.

However, you can still install Flash and use it on 4.1. When it comes down to it, as much as everyone else thinks Flash is dead, until content providers and web sites stop using it, it's still quite alive.

Without the ability to use Flash, there are several times I would have been stuck. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.